Chapter 3

Early the next morning, my eyes were shockingly swollen. Morgan took one look at me and, for the first time, actually showed concern for me. He asked, "Did you not sleep well yesterday?" I plastered a smile onto my face and said nothing. He came closer and touched my forehead. The moment he approached me, I saw a string of obvious kiss marks beneath his shirt collar and could not help but feel queasy. After not saying a single word to him since the night before, I finally said, "Let's break up." Morgan was stunned. His expression immediately turned cold. "Do you understand what you're saying, Quiana?" I nodded, my mind clear. Fearing that he had not heard me well, I repeated, "I said, things are over between us. Let's part ways on friendly terms." However, Morgan assumed that I was simply throwing a minor tantrum. He raised an eyebrow at me and laughed. "It was just one promotion opportunity, Quiana. Why do you have to be so petty that you're actually threatening to break up with me?" He patted my face with the belt and slowly asked, "Can you live without me? Don't let me hear you say something like this again. There should be a limit to your jealousy." Perhaps because he thought I was throwing a tantrum to gain his attention, he offered to drive me to the company for the first time ever. In the five years we had been in this secret relationship, he had always refused to give me a ride on account of avoiding suspicion. Morgan pulled me into his car, whereupon I caught sight of a pair of torn stockings in the front passenger seat. Holding back my disgust, I closed the car door and got into the backseat instead. Morgan had also frozen in place. "Sestina got her clothes dirty yesterday, so I allowed her to change her clothes in my car." However, I stopped listening to his explanation and closed my eyes instead. Upon arriving at the company, my colleagues, whom I used to get along well with, looked strangely at me, as if they were watching an interesting show. I approached my office, only to discover my valuable documents scattered across the floor. Some of my personal belongings had also been thoroughly rummaged through. My anger flared instantly, but just as I was about to ask around about the culprit, I spotted Sestina ordering two people to carry a desk into the office. I picked up a project plan that had two dirty shoe prints on it from the floor. I had spent half a month writing its contents. As I dusted it off, I looked at Sestina and asked, "Were you the one who did this?" Sestina covered her mouth with a look of surprise on her face. "Oh. Oops! I didn't expect them to be so careless either, Quiana. They actually treated all your belongings like trash!" Even though she was apologizing, there was a look of contempt in her eyes. "However, Mr. Gulley already approved the transfer of ownership of this office to me, so trash should know its place!" I smiled and decisively lifted my hand with the intent to slap Sestina's face, but Morgan rushed out a second later with anger in his eyes and shoved me to the floor. "What are you doing, Quiana?" he bellowed. I hit my head against the corner of the table. My ears instantly started ringing, quickly followed by a sharp pain in my forehead. However, the pain was nothing compared to the ache in my heart at that moment. I stared blankly at Morgan, the man I had once loved deeply. He was now nothing more than a stranger to me.